I don't do Yuletide, because I struggle to write fic to order (or at all, really) at the best of times and November/December is not the best of times, but I always enjoy browsing the collection. This year, I found a lot to enjoy; there seems to be a happy coincidence of really good fics and fandoms I know and like reading (some years, I have the sense that all the best fics are in canons I don't know).
There were some really good DWJ fics this year; these were my favourites of a strong crop:
You Won't Believe How This Woman Proved The Pen Is More Trouble Than The Sword! (3143 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne JonesRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Marianne Pinhoe, Christopher Chant, Millie | Millie Chant, The Dright (Chrestomanci)
Additional Tags: old foes, fairytale menace, Futurefic, julia was covering for janet, ho ho ho run for your lives, Post-Canon
Summary: Marianne's stories have a tendency to come true, so she keeps jumping genres to try and avoid that little issue.It's not working.This story draws primarily from The Lives of Christopher Chant and The Pinhoe Egg.
But Blank Lines Do Not Say Nothing (4088 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne JonesRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Julia Chant, Janet Chant, Christopher Chant
Additional Tags: Parent-Child Relationship, Children of Immigrants, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: Julia knew a lot about her father, but she didn’t even know her mother’s maiden name.
Where the Bee Sucks (1614 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Fire and Hemlock - Diana Wynne JonesRating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Laurel Leroy/Thomas Lynn, Laurel Leroy/Morton Leroy, Laurel Leroy/Charles Lynn
Characters: Edna Lynn, Laurel Leroy, Morton Leroy, Charles Lynn, Thomas Lynn
Additional Tags: Older Woman/Younger Man
Summary: Beltane, Lammas, Yule: Laurel plays a long game.
There were also some lovely Le Guin fics:
Three Tellings About Dead Things in the Earth (5376 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom:
Always Coming Home - Ursula K. Le GuinRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Pandora, Stone Telling
Additional Tags: plays, Visions, Coal - Freeform
Summary: Some things a geomythologer brought out of the archives of the Madrone Lodge at Wakwaha: a life history from a woman of Sinshan; an account of a play performed in Tachas Touchas; a story left behind from a traveler in the Valley.
the leaning grasses and two lights above the sea (3647 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Earthsea - Ursula K. Le GuinRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ged/Tenar (Earthsea), Seserakh & Tenar (Earthsea), Seserakh/Lebannen (Earthsea)
Characters: Tenar (Earthsea), Seserakh (Earthsea), Ged (Earthsea)
Summary: One year after the wedding, a procession comes up the mountain from Gont Harbor.
There were three fics for John Finnemore's Souvenir Progrmmme, all featuring the Storyteller character. This was my favourite, though the others were also very good:
The Strange Visitors (1010 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
John Finnemore's Souvenir ProgrammeRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Finnemore | The Storyteller (John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme)
Additional Tags: Humor, Puns & Word Play, Aliens
Summary: Well, since you ask me for a tale about strange visitors from another world, I did have an experience once the relation of which I believe you will find diverting.
Some very strong Wimseyfic, too:
A Winter's Afternoon (1067 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. SayersRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Characters: Harriet Vane, Peter Wimsey
Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff
Summary: Harriet misses the sun.
Traces Through Time (2461 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. SayersRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey
Characters: Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane
Additional Tags: Documentation, Alternate Universe - Medieval
Summary: Katherine Climpson explores the documentation of an unusual example of medieval matrimony.
And a handful of others:
The Navajo Ring (5342 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
His Dark Materials - Philip PullmanRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lyra Belacqua, Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala, Iorek Byrnison, Stanislaus Grumman, John Parry
Summary: Ten years after the openings between the worlds were closed, the alethiometer has a message for Lyra. Meanwhile, in the far north, a Texan aeronaut and a shaman-explorer walk into a bar.
Wintersong (1177 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove JanssonRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mumintrollet | Moomintroll, Snusmumriken | Snufkin, Too-ticki | Too-Ticky, Muminmamman | Moominmamma, Muminpappan | Moominpappa
Summary: Moomintroll decides to spend the winter awake after Snufkin has left. The beginning of the winter is a bleak time, but there are old friends around, too.
Perfectly in keeping with canon; I loved it.
There and Back Again (1329 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Rivers of London - Ben AaronovitchRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Beverley Brook, Abigail Kamara
Additional Tags: Missing Scene
Summary: "And if you're the woman who, driving along the A4155 that afternoon, found herself inexplicably picking up a pair of hitchhikers and driving them all the way into London, I'm really, really sorry". Lies Sleeping, Chapter 12
Fire and Bells (3515 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Kay Harker Series - John Masefield,
Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper,
The Box of Delights (TV)Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maria Jones, Kay Harker
Additional Tags: Christmas, Future Fic, Crossover, 1930s
Summary: It's Christmas 1932, and Maria Jones only wants to find the magic in the world.
(Maria Jones is The Best, so obviously I loved this.)
C'est déjà gémir, Jeeves (12963 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Jeeves & Wooster,
Jeeves - P. G. WodehouseRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Reginald Jeeves & Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, Florence Craye/OFC, OFC/OFC
Characters: Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, Reginald Jeeves, Lady Florence Craye, Anatole (Jeeves and Wooster), Original Female Characters, Original Mule Character - Character
Additional Tags: Possibly marginally more risqué than canon, marginally, The Loire Valley, Incidental winemaking, Incidental cheesemaking, Incidental handicrafts, Incidental farm animals, Incidental lesbians, harold..., Relationship Construction Rube Goldberg Machines, Chekhov's Mule, Yet another Yuletide during which Author must apologize to the French
Summary: Jeeves and Wooster go to the Loire Valley to recollect Anatole from the arms of his people; and instead find themselves entangled with a winery, a French dairymaid, a commune of expat Sapphists, a duel, an ill-tempered mule, and the inevitable Lady Florence Craye.
This one is hilarious.
